ImmortalPhoenix

    (There are important elements to an MMO that current games studios are just ignoring. Will they ignore them forever?) Is there such a thing as a perfect MMO? Aren’t people and gamers different themselves and don’t we all have different tastes? How can one game appeal to all of us? How can the MMO make a comeback especially after having so many failures these past couple years and having the successful ones slowly crumble? Wishful thinking So yes it may just be wishful thinking but after having played a number of MMOs I think there are features that would appeal to a mass audience that are simply being neglected right now. You see some of these features in games here and there but never all in one place. Finally after much frustration I want to go through the main elements of an MMO that should come together to create a great gaming experience. Land Why are they playing this MMO? What is at the heart and the soul

  [pullquote_right]Which awards you give is as important as the selection process of giving awards. The Philosophy behind award categories is essential for Video Game Award committees to understand[/pullquote_right]   The mission of this column has always been to analyze gaming culture and the gaming industry and a great topic around this time is end of the year awards for Games. There are a ton of questions that come to mind and forums filled with flame wars as to which games deserve which awards but there’s very little discussion on what categories there should be to begin with. Are we missing any important categories? Do we have any now that are too general that need to be removed? Besides the issues of categories, can you have two games win the same award, or not give an award because no games earned it? There are a lot of tough questions surrounding these end of the year gaming awards, and a lot of them that simply haven’t been addressed. It’s important to

(So yea, Gaming hasn’t improved, it has simply gotten simpler so we imbeciles can enjoy it. Right? Wrong!) Commonly in Video Game culture there comes a discussion of how games today are just far too easy and they’ve developed this way to make it easier for the masses to play games. This idea perpetuates the notion that gaming has only gotten bigger because it has dumbed down so that non-gamers(Whoever they are) can get excited about playing games. There are two main reasons why these types of ideas are just plain stupid. Firstly it’s actually offensive to gamers to say that more people play now because games have gotten “stupid” enough for the majority of “stupid” society to play along. Believe it or not, Pokemon, Paperboy, and Super Street fighter were never hard games. It’s true that there are a number of series early on in gaming that were extremely challenging but looking at the “Golden” era of gaming shows a plethora of games you could consider laughably easy. IF

   (When you enter the virtual world you want as much of the real you as you can to take part. Asymmetrical gameplay is a way of playing to your strengths and taking advantage of your enemy’s weaknesses.) Everyone has an intrinsic way they love to fight or compete. Asymmetrical Gameplay takes advantage of that. People that love weapons or magical powers that give them faster attack will gladly play that way even if it means having to play with less health. Game designers often take advantage of this fact and allow complex arrangements of play to take place each giving one player a distinct advantage and weakness over the others. Although one player may be able to quickly kill the other, his speed may be directly affected. People that love to play those slow tanks, will still gladly do so and slowly trug along, knowing if they can get their hands on the opponent, they will easily make up their lost time and mow through the enemy lines. Asymmetrical

  (Gamers have a right to be treated fairly. If they buy a lower quality item they should pay a lower price.) I read a very interesting article on the BBC’s site about how humans are born fair and how the idea of fairness is really unique to humans. Now we know the world isn’t fair and we’ve come across a lot of things that shouldn’t be, but that doesn’t mean we give up and allow rampant murder throughout the streets of the world. We do our best to try to get as much justice for people as possible, so that we can live as fairly as possible. What does all of this have to do with gaming? The game industry is charging us the same price for a digital game as it would for the physical copy. That’s like a slap in the face to the regular gamer. Literally, we’re all being slapped and have been for years now, and no one seems to be speaking up about it.